In a continuous plate reactor, or a flow module for other purposes, a stack of two or more flow plates are clamped together with optional heat exchanger plates, barrier plates and/or end plates, forming one or more flow channels. The plates are clamped together under high pressure in order to ensure good sealing of the flow channels. Different parts of the reactor may need to be thermally insulated from adjacent parts of the reactor to reduce problems associated with transfer of heat. Adjacent flow channels may need to be insulated from each other in order to minimize any thermal crosstalk between reaction channels. End plates of the reactor may need to be thermally insulated from the rest of the stack of plates in order to maintain good sealing of flow channels in the stack. Upon subjection to steep temperature gradients, such as during rapid heating or cooling of a flow plate, such end plates may deform and thereby fail to maintain a uniform pressure distribution and thus good sealing in the stack of plates.
Insulator plates made out of polymer materials with suitable insulating properties, such as PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), suffer from the drawback that they may deform plastically under high pressure and high temperature leading to reduced performance and reusability.